Christy's 180 build

[Lance]

I know I've said it before but that is the brightest mushroom I've ever seen! And of course I'm happy to see Old Purple again. What did you do, go back to the old camera?

[christyf5]

I got the portal from progressive reef. I think it was $80. Its pretty cool, I have no idea who makes it. Oh wait, I wrote it down somewhere. Its made by ivsportal.com I've never heard of them. Its kind of cool though as its magnetic so you can move it on the glass and it also sort of acts like a mag float and cleans the glass as well. I have no idea if the side in the water floats though, I haven't tested that yet

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Lance

I know I've said it before but that is the brightest mushroom I've ever seen! And of course I'm happy to see Old Purple again. What did you do, go back to the old camera?

Yeah those mushrooms are pretty cool but way too prolific for my liking. I now have them in about 4 different areas. The purple tang is just luck of the draw, same camera but who knows where the blue is coming from, I don't have any actinics on this tank. However, I did just change out the bulbs to new Ushio 10Ks. They're definitely bluer than the old 10Ks. It always amazes me how yellowy they get without me noticing until I put the new bulbs on

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by kien

Your tank looks good! Even if it looks like crud. Lots of pretty crud !

Thanks Kien, I tried to stick to the pretty crud versus all the reddish slimy crud and that other crud we call detritus but is really just fish poop

Oh I forgot to post a pic of my little garden. I'm cultivating caulerpa for fun, ya know cuz I'm so bored with reefing I felt the need to branch out...

[lastlight]

With corals that nice you've got no case. A tank is as nice as the corals in it so I'm afraid your tank is pretty damn nice

[marie]

Originally Posted by christyf5

.....

Oh I forgot to post a pic of my little garden. I'm cultivating caulerpa for fun, ya know cuz I'm so bored with reefing I felt the need to branch out...

I've been cultivating a caulerpa patch and didn't even know it until it started spreading out into the sandbed. I traced it back to the rock and pulled a thick 2" clump out from underneath a mushroom.......on the brightside it is a particularily attractive form of caulerpa

[Chowder]

Tank is looking great Christy. Some great pieces in there.

Chris

[fishoholic]

Looks good to me. Have to say that portal thingy is cool!

[Tom R]

Hi Christy

The tank is looking great.

Looks like you have a solid grasp of this Reef Keeping stuff.

Tom R

[christyf5]

Tank took a big hit last year. Fall of 2012 saw some hair algae move in after using a phosphate reducer that wiped out some corals. I suspect the stuff slowly leached out of the rock or something. Where it came from I have no idea, I haven't had hair algae problems since I started in the hobby. It started out as a small patch that I wasn't worried about as the fish picked at it and I thought they'd take care of it. I didn't pay much attention and then the next thing I knew it was everywhere. By february the tank looked like this:



I went on the hunt for a seahare and ended up sharing one with another local reefer, her tank was smaller so she took him first. By the time I got him into my tank though, I was already losing corals as I couldn't get the algae pruned and scrubbed fast enough. The seahare finally went in and cleaned every last bit of algae from the tank over the next few months, and I mean EVERY last bit, even the turf algae and various other algaes I've had for ages. It was like I had started out with new rock. Crazy awesome. However I didn't have very many corals left. By then I had a new baby to deal with and tank maintenance was chucking some food at the fish nightly (if I remembered) and it wasn't long before the cyano set in and the last of the SPS were on their way out. I have 2 colonies left and a few LPS. The tank was looking pretty bare and it was pretty depressing. I finally decided to give it another go. The fish are sticking around so might as well have the tank looking decent

So heres the tank as it looks tonight. I added a bunch of frags courtesy of Brad on Sunday night and I will be working on getting the last of the cyano out of there. Turkey basting and waterchanges etc. Fun stuff.



Man that is a crappy photo. Looks ok on my phone LOL! Anyways you get the idea